From music, to theater and other live events, one of the critical issues facing the entertainment industry today is what to do about the astronomical prices for tickets on the secondary market conpounded by ticket availability, scalpers, and now automated bots that swoop in and secure tickets for popular shows before the public ever gets a fair chance at them. Billions of dollars are being funneled to ticket brokers at the expense of well-meaning fans without venues, promoters, or performers seeing a penny of that extra profit.

The issue has become so intense and widespread, it has even come into play in Presidential politics. The head of the Democratic National Committee—Debbie Wasserman Shultz—was forced to resign due to Wikileaks exposure of DNC emails, including a plea by Wasserman Shultz to secure tickets to the popular Broadway play Hamilton.

On Sunday (8-14), Hamilton creator and star Lin-Manuel Miranda, along with New York Senator Chuck Schumer, announced a new bill called the BOTS Act (Better On-line Ticket Sales Act of 2016) that would fine bot users $16,000 per ticket purchased when they swoop in milliseconds after tickets go on sale. California currently has a fine of $2,500 on scalpers who use bots, and New York State has a fine of $1,000. It is estimated that scalpers made $15.5 million just off of the last 100 performances of Hamilton alone, with some seats going for as much as $15,000 on the secondary market. Estimates of how much the entire industry loses to the secondary ticketing market range to upwards of $8 billion. Of course the problem is finding the bot creators and prosecuting them when the internet supplies all manner of anonymity for the individuals behind the bots.

For musical acts, the secondary ticket market is a critical issue. Country artist Eric Church has decided to do battle with scalpers and is taking the fight personally, including cancelling any ticket sales that his team discovers were made by bots or scalpers. Even then, vetting individual tickets for each concert is a difficult task, and as long as scalpers or bots keep their purchases to a minimum and don’t buy entire blocks of tickets, they may still slip under the radar.

But all of these solutions do not address the underlying problem with the ticketing of these major shows and events. The reason so many can make so much money on the secondary market is because there is way more demand than there is supply. And by performers not ramping up their supply and only playing one, or maybe two shows in a market that could potentially support four or five, they’re allowing the secondary market to thrive.

According to some industry insiders, the solution is to start charging significantly more for tickets so the promoters and performers make that extra money, not scalpers.

“Get off your highfalutin’ college education pedestal and see when an entire industry underprices its inventory there will be those willing to move in and skim the profits,”says music industry guru Bob Lefsetz. “You can’t put billions up for grabs and expect those who are not already rich, or those who already are, the hackers and the ticket scalpers respectively, to not move in and take it.”

As for bots, Lefsetz says, “We haven’t even been able to eradicate e-mail spam, what are the odds we can mess with the bots? Low.”

There already is a movement to increase ticket prices through “Platinum” seating and other programs that bundle meet and greets, merch packages, and collectible laminates to entice intense fans to pay more for tickets. Music industry titan Irving Azoff is apparently working with Live Nation and a technology company to institutionalize high-end VIP packages to try and recuperate some of the scalping revenue for the industry. “It’s my answer to what’s broken in the system, which is what I call ‘the StubHub factor,’ “ Azoff says to Billboard. “You have lots of people with no skin in the game escaping with lots of money.”

Higher ticket prices would obviously curb demand, but they would also lock out most average concert goers from being able to see their favorite stars live. Charging higher prices only solves the ticketing dilemma from the industry’s point of view—not the consumer’s. If anything, it could put the consumer in an even worse position. Now, at least they have a chance of scooping up a ticket at a reasonable face value.

But there is another way to solve the ticketing paradigm, at least in music where supply can be scaled, and can be done in a way that benefits both the consumer, and the artists, promoters, and venues. And it has all been laid out and battle tested by none other than Garth Brooks.

Though Garth may symbolize the embodiment of the money hungry music performer to many, his comeback tour has made it possible for most all consumers to pay face value for tickets at a reasonable price, while eliminating the need for scalpers by scaling inventory to demand. When Garth Brooks announces a tour stop, he may begin with one or two shows, but if they sell out quickly, he may add additional performances, either as matinees or on additional nights. This way ticket supply stays ahead of the secondary market. It also allows Garth to book arenas as opposed to stadiums and other big venues where the sound and presentation aren’t as easily controlled.

Garth also didn’t announce all the dates for his comeback tour at once, or even separate legs of it. Instead, he announces cities he will be performing in one at a time, and as soon as performances sell out, additional ones are booked. By implementing this strategy, not only has Garth been able to keep ticket prices low for all of his fans, he also is able to rake in incredible profits, without the scalping industry skimming anything off the top due to secondary market sales.

Garth Brooks also doesn’t have what he calls a “golden bowl” at his concerts, or an area near the stage where tickets are more expensive. All tickets are of equal value, creating an even more equitable environment in the concert space. And to counteract scalpers, ticket holders all must present both an ID, and the credit card used to purchase the tickets when arriving at the venue, and all members of a party must be present and enter the venue at once. These simple procedures stop scalpers and counterfeiters in their tracks, and keeps the free flow of tickets to true fans unobstructed.

Of course, performers have to be willing to play more performances in a given city for the Garth Brooks model to work. But why wouldn’t they if it meant more profit, while incurring less revenue per performance since the concert stage and production is already constructed in a given venue. If Garth Brooks can play 4 shows in two days at age 54, most other major arena performers can too.

When Forbes released its annual list of the highest-paid country performers in 2016, it wasn’t Kenny Chesney, Luke Bryan, or Jason Aldean topping the list, it was Garth Brooks due to Garth’s massive comeback tour that has seen him amass some $70 million and counting. And considering that his tour is now stretching into its second year, this isn’t just about pent up spending after his prolonged retirement, it’s about scaling to demand, and recouping the money usually surrendered to scalpers.

Going after bots and other individuals who are taking an unfair advantage in the ticket market is an important step. But significantly raising face value prices on tickets at the promoter level only limits the amount of consumers that are able to go to concerts, making an even bigger gulf between the have’s and the have not’s in music and society.

When performers and their productions roll into a town and set up in a concert venue, much of the production costs have already been incurred. Unlike sports and other events, music has the ability to book as many shows as a local population demands. Artists and promoters make more money, more fans get to see the shows, and ticket prices remain reasonable. This seems like a much healthier alternative to re-assigning the egregious profits of scalpers to fat cat promoters looking to make even more money on the backs of consumers via platinum deals and other VIP perks.

50 Comments

Visloch
August 16, 2016 @
10:29 am

The Brooks method sounds promising, but what happens if the original ticket buyer cannot attend? Since it appears they are not be able to resell or pass the ticket onto someone else, are they able to get a refund on the ticket somehow?

I’m not sure what the return policy is for Garth’s shows. Maybe someone who’s had experience with it will pipe up here.

But along those same lines, there’s nothing wrong with the secondary market in certain circumstances, like you purchase a couple of tickets and then something happens that you can’t go. That’s what StubHub and others are for. The problem is so many have come in and exploited the market that they’re making tons of profit without having any skin in the music game. It’s not their music, their capital funding the acts rolling down the road. They’re just moving paper and making ridiculous profits off the backs of fans who want to see their favorite artists.

When I purchased Garth tickets for both shows I went to (his first stop in Chicago and his later stop in my native Cleveland), they were delivered through a method called FlashSeats. FlashSeats does allow the ticketholder to transfer the tickets to another FlashSeats account electronically, and that is how the tickets are then obtained at the show: with an ID and/or a credit card linked to the FlashSeats account the tickets are currently associated with.

That’s my experience with how it worked when I went to Garth’s shows. I don’t believe there was even an option of paper tickets when I ordered. FlashSeats was the only option.

While I agree it is BS I am a firm believer in markets. So to me, if the secondary market is making billions (estimated up to $8B) then that tells you two dimple things 1) fans are paying the prices and 2) the primary market could capture those same profits from those fans.

I agree it sucks but by not charging more they are actually just hurting the common man.

I think it’s unrealistic artist with families are going to play 2-4 shows in each city year after year. Garth on a comeback tour is just not apples to apples.

I get it but simple economics tells you if there is a market (demand) it will be exploited.
Bots are bad but it’s not like these assholes didn’t stick below-minimum wage folks in ticket lines before online sales. Yes it’s much worse and something needs to change but computerized purchasing isn’t the only issue.

The commitment from an artist to play an additional matinee show on the same day as a night performance is maybe three hours. In that three hours, the concert will likely gross $500,000-$1,000,000. Also, the artist is already in town, the stage is already set up by the road crew. Everything’s in place. Is it a deeper commitment? Sure. But I don’t want to hear Luke Bryan complaining his job’s too hard.

I like that Garth adds extra shows when possible to certain cities. We had a sold-out two night run here in NLR, Arkansas for a Friday and Saturday in December of 2014. After the tickets all but evaporated, Garth added a show on Thursday night. It’s perhaps naive of me to think that it was about fans rather than cash, but I appreciated the gesture nonetheless.

My solution for the consumer is to boycott the giant mega concerts….I don’t go to em. Instead, I go to music festivals and little shows in small venues where the reseller has no interest! Nothing like supporting the little guy.

Sure. I haven’t been to an arena concert in years, and the last few I’ve gone to weren’t country artists. But the simple fact is by the numbers, this is a massive issue facing millions of music fans. Fans of big artists also deserve to be treated equitably, and bots are making that virtually impossible. Scalpers have always been a part of the concert environment. But with bots, they’ve gotten greedy, and now it’s not just affecting arena or stadium-level artists. This has been a massive issue for Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Jason Isbell and others. Basically if you’re selling out the venues you play, the bots will be there to scoop up tickets. So when you support the little guy enough where they start to get even kind of big, this immediately becomes an issue.

BTW, Sturgill Simpson is already sort of doing this Garth model in a microcosm. It’s not uncommon for him to book a show, and if it sells out quickly, try to add a second date. In fact this issue can affect small-time artists even more because they’re too big for large clubs/small theaters, but are too small for arenas.

Yep but Sturgill is getting crushed by scalpers being an “in between” artist right now. He’s too big to play small venues but too small to play arenas. So he’s mostly playing theaters therefore the demand is high and he sells out his tour. He try’s to do the right thing with affordable prices but with a lot $35 face values its routine for fans to pay spreads ranging from 100% to 300% at his shows.

In a similar article on this subject that I linked to avove, I talked about how artists are tasked with selling out shows at a certain level for PR reasons, and before promoters will allow them to be booked at the next level. This ensures promoters make their investment back, but puts fans at a disadvantage because it means acts like Sturgill are constantly getting booked in venues smaller than they need to be.

As someone from a small city in SW Ohio, I have to say the “book more shows” answer would probably mean more shows in larger cities while smaller cities get skipped. That would be a bummer for folks like me. A 5 hour drive to Chicago or further just is not doable. Though I will say Jason Isbell (who, like Sturgill is a target for scalpers because he sells out intermediate venues) added a show in Cincinnati this summer because of the demand. Kudos to him.

I would like to see venues find a way to sell their own tickets and not rely on the big . The “artsy” venues in my area band together to do that (symphony, two small theater companies, ballet and opera), which I think makes it more manageable since there is just one ticketing venue (it includes will-call, so you can order online and do will-call). I wonder if that is a model.

I love Garth’s model, but it basically works for Garth. In reality a lot of artists are having trouble selling out shows right now, because a ton of artists are touring. Look at sales for Miranda, Dierks, Keith, they’re not selling out, but you still get the re-sale market because they’re going in as speculators. From a supply/demand perspective if you can’t sell out one show you’re not going to sell out a second.

You also have to be willing to hold a venue, most organizers don’t want to have an empty venue on a Friday or Saturday night, when Garth goes in he knows he’s going to be able to do multiple shows. In order to just keep adding shows, you have to convince the venue not to book other acts.

Finally, you also have to be willing to play a ton of dates with a somewhat undefined schedule & hope your voice holds out. For someone whose kids are grown that works, but for someone like Luke who has several young children, that probably holds less appeal,,or a Blake who has another job, or a pop star who is trying to schedule a global tour.

That being said, you do see the stars adding multiple dates in cities, Luke does it, Blake’s got a few, Eric doing it as well on his new tour, everyone does it in Nashville. But (now that I’ve written this entire thing) how many country stars does it really impact? Even Luke isn’t totally selling out this year…It seems like maybe more of a problem in pop music.

Well sure, this only applies to the situations where venues are selling out quickly, and there’s no ticket supply for consumers. Obviously this doesn’t affect every artist, but as I pointed out in a comment above, it is not just affecting huge stars, it’s affection folks like Sturgill Simpson and Jason Isbell. Bots don’t just go after arena shows. Any artist who is likely to sell out a venue, whatever size, is likely to be targeted by bots and scalpers.

Sure, I guess I just assume that if Sturgil & Jason are consistently selling out (they’re not, at least at a quick glance) they’d bump up venue sizes. That’s what you’re seeing with Stapleton right now. Obviously, if they want to remain in the same size venues than the Garth strategy would come into play,,,but it still has all the problems I mentioned above.

At the very big but not quite super star level though the lack of venues between 7-10k is also a problem. It means you essentially have to decide between 5k venues or 10k+ venues.

When I saw George Strait on his last tour, I paid $115 for a second row ticket. The people behind me paid $1,300 for theirs, and got wasted. George is my favorite, and I never expected to get a second row seat. Even as bad as I wanted to see him, it never would have happened if I couldn’t get a ticket through the regular sale. $1,300? Really? That’s ignorance.

Another solution is to return to the old model of selling tickets – in person. Do away with online sales and make ticket buyers go to the box office of the venue to purchase their tickets. It won’t completely eliminate scalpers but it makes it much harder and more costly for them to acquire tickets.

Since I live in a big city, that would work for me. But many people don’t, and they have to drive upwards of two hours or more for most concerts. For example, if you live in Fayetteville, NC, a decent-size city but not a draw for tours, you almost always have to drive up to Raleigh-Durham or Greensboro or even way over to Charlotte. You can’t expect them to drive to these cities just to buy the tickets in person — unless tickets are only made available on the day of the event.

Yep many stores like Tower Records had Ticketmaster outlets in them and it seemed that back then anyway most major concerts put there tickets on sale at like 9:00 am Saturday mornings and for the big ones people would camp out the night before if allowed or at least start lining up very early.

I will always remember waiting in line along with hundreds of others at Tower Records in 1995 when the Seattle Mariners forced a one game playoff the day after the season ended. They sold 50,000 plus tickets starting at like 6:00 pm for an event that started the next day 1:00 pm.

Things could be done about this but I guess people nowadays can’t imagine doing things like this.

Not a fan of Garth’s music but I genuinely believe he is a decent person and that he respects and appreciates what his fan base has done for him. This reinforces that belief. An outfit called Flash Tickets has a similar ID and credit card rule in place. Tickets can be transferred but damned if I can remember how it worked though I had to invoke it once for tickets my wife bought for my son and me.

Garth does sell a vip package where front row and meet and greets can be upwards of $2,500 a ticket. People buying those tickets don’t care either way. The rest of the tickets are one price fits all, and luck of the draw. Truthfully I don’t see him worrying about the money part of a situation all that much, more about what is right. If you remember Chicago he was getting additional money from the venue for performing.

I forget the name of the company but the hall of fame was hosting some of their concerts last year there. It’s a much higher price tag to buy tickets (say 5 events for $2,000) but it’s a much better experience if you can afford it. Very limited seating and a vip experience through and through. Top shelf alcohol, and food.

As consumers, we also have to make decisions on whether we want to support this second-hand industry or not. I recently tried to get both Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton tickets, and the shows both sold out within seconds. I posted on Sturgill’s Facebook page about the experience, and another user suggested I visit StubHub. Ultimately, I want my money to support Sturgill and not a scalper. I know I am probably preaching to the choir on this site, though.

I actually have tickets to see Hamilton in January. It took me over eight months to score tickets from the venue directly, and they are in the “cheap seats,” if you will. As much as I wanted to shell out the $15,000 to see much of the original cast’s final performance, my conscience (and my credit card) wouldn’t let me.

Garth Brooks did four shows in my city last year, and I know several people who attended at a reasonable price and had a great time. Would this model work for every performer? It would be difficult for some, especially those with families and other obligations, but adding padding into the schedules may accommodate this and if anything, give the performer a much needed break. It is good to see Sturgill do so, especially since he has a young child, and to see if it works.

Also, the consolidation of the ticket industry into Ticketmaster/Live Nation has opened the floodgates to scalpers. I have mad Internet skills and used to be able to scoop up front row seats to just about any show in town, but the majority of venues in my area switched over to an agreement with Ticketmaster, and since then, my luck has flown out the window. If we saw the number of smaller, local ticket agencies increase, it would be more difficult for the bots to work on each one of these sites.

This is definitely a huge problem. Paul McCartney played in Buffalo last fall. He had never been here before. Of course, tickets sold out in a few minutes. I was willing to pay up to $250 for a good seat. But I wasn’t going to pay that much or more for a nosebleed seat far away even to see Paul. Needless to say, the cheapest seats on StubHub and the like were at least $300. As for Garth, he’s always kept his prices reasonable. And look how much he ended up making on this tour.

Garth’s tickets are transferable and refundable. He also doesn’t sell the first two rows in the general on sale. Those seats go to the VIP purchasers, Make a Wish families and people in the worse seat in the venue via his crew handing out tickets and upgrading people in the nosebleeds.

When tickets went on sale for some Garth shows in San Antonio, people told me to call in 10 minutes before official on sale time so I would have a chance to get two tickets and later it became three. Didn’t have to deal with long waiting times or getting a sold out message, it was actually a pretty smooth and quick process. So yeah Kyle you’re definitely onto something and here’s hoping other acts will follow suit.

It would be cool if they were willing to do this, but why would they voluntarily cut into the massive profits they’re making at the moment? StubHub probably knows regulation is on the way, and they’re probably going to make every last penny they can until it occurs.

True, but a forward thinking dealer on secondary markets may able to strike exclusive deals with brokers by guaranteeing that scalpers can’t charge ridiculous prices over face value. Then the brokers, StubHub–or whomever–, and most importantly the fans, all win.

I’ve been to festivals where their policy is you can sell on as much as you want but not for more than face value. It wouldn’t take much for them to pretend to purchase and then cancel the ticket. Do it often enough and scalpers are screwed.

The negative thing about Garth’s model is that I like to purchase my concert tickets at least a few weeks in advance so I can make sure I have the money for the show. With Garth’s model I’d have maybe a couple days’ notice.

I love the secondary market. But, maybe the shows I go to aren’t in high demand. I use Vivid. This year alone I got Sturgill Simpson tickets for $19 ($35 face value), Willie 4th of July Pit Admissions $10 over face value and I’m currently watching Farm Aid tickets (initially $75, now $60) and Outlaw Fest tickets (down to $45 from $55).

I never liked the 2 show a night model. Seems cheap. I want my artist to give his or her all for 2 hours, leave nothing on the stage.

This “solution” is not for every show, or every artist. It is simply a suggestion for the concerts that get sold out immediately, get attacked by bots, and tickets regularly go for 3 to 5 times face value, sometimes more. It may not be a big problem for you or your favorite artist, but if the solution for the industry is to just quadruple ticket prices, that will trickle down to your favorite artist, and affect the entire marketplace. That is the alternative that is being implemented by the industry as we speak, and what scares me the most. Live Nation doesn’t just promote Kenny Chesney. They promote Sturgill and many others.

I agree. But, people got to learn how to use the secondary market. They key is to wait. The closer to the show, those tickets will drop. Only the 1% would ever pay those prices initially posted. The brokers make their money on the 1%, get spooked and look to just get their money back (or sometimes less) on all those tickets they gobbled up closer to the show.

There are exceptions and one day my luck will run out on a show, but by then I feel I’ve saved enough money on other shows to splurge.

The Garth Brooks model definitely seems ideal for putting a stop to scalping. What’s even more infuriating is that artists, promoters, and record labels have been caught setting aside tickets for sale on the secondary market. While bots have certainly played a major part in scalping, the industry itself is just as guilty of cheating consumers out of tickets for their own profit. Here’s a Slate article from a few years back detailing some of the cases:

I saw Garth in ’96 in Halifax, NS (Canada). I was 16. It was quite the ticket-buying experience. Everyone paid the same price ($37, if I remember correctly). Some time before the event, all ticket buyers met at the arena and received a wrist band. They randomly called the numbers off the wristbands and gave you your seat number, grouping the buyers together as to not split up groups. People willing to pay more for good seats were probably upset, but for a broke kid and his broke mom, it was pretty cool. It was closest I’ve ever been to the stage for a big concert, and I was huge Garth fan.

He scheduled 1 show and ended up selling out 4. He also was recording for his Double Live album and supposedly Halifax is on there somewhere.

Not the same thing he’s doing now, but apparently he’s been doing stuff like this for a long time. Good memory for sure.

This may sound dumb, but with most of America owning a phone with a camera on it, I don’t know why when someone buys a ticket online, they have to also send a photo and the photo is placed on the ticket. I doubt it would be too difficult.

Also while bots are a big problem, another big issue is arenas with pro sports teams allowing season ticket holders, who are normally very rich, first access at tickets. I know when Adele, who has her own way to combat scalpers, recently played the Twin Cities, more than 75 percent of the tickets were sold to season ticket holders, who in many cases paid for their own tickets by purchasing a few extras and selling them on Craiglist or Stub Hub.

Eric Church is not allowing any pre-sales except for his fan club on his next tour and I hope that helps fans like me get better seats at face value.

Red Rocks recently posted about their proud partnership with StubHub. With the rise in Social Media and the successful marketing campaign of it as a “destination” venue, ive heard from a couple locals that scalping is even more outrageous than ever because of it with locals and tourists getting burned. I find it troubling that venues are partnering with these types of companies, you would think they’d be natural enemies. I know the venue I used to work for was very proactive against scalpers, the owner doeant like competition when it comes to ripping off the concertgoer.

Don’t think I’ve ever been as pissed off as when I got on ticketmaster the morning the Sturgill ryman tickets went up, right when they went on sale, and they were all gone. Fucking livid, especially because they were four times as much on stubhub.

Doesn’t anyone know that sell outs are not true Live Nation/Ticket Master is the biggest Scalper, Venue Owner, Promotor and Artist Manager? Hell they want Bots people that way the small % of seats they supposed sell to the public go to smaller Scalpers giving them a Scape Goat, Free Advertising and pushes the Fans back and up into over priced shitty seats no Scalp would buy. That is just the edge of the rabbit hole Scalping is called the 2nd Oldest Profession for a reason. Oh and Artist, Teams etc would sell their tickets without falsely advertising (Face Price) if they could it’s just that Fans will hate them for it. No one will read this and fans will still over pay.